Tips advice to make your own toy range

Casey Lau [HyperChild] > Okay....to make your own toys you need a few things- if you can do them all yourself, great -if not you will need to put out some cash to have others come in to help you. As an aside, I could write a book on how to self publish your own comic book which is a lot cheaper than making toys, but perhaps next interview, haaa.

Anyway, the first step is DESIGN. Design your figures with good ol’ pencil and paper, and work out your designs in various poses until you’re are happy with one.

Then you basically need to draw out what we call “TURNS” an animation term for front, side and back views of a character. This is for a sculptor to see what it is you want to do. Obviously if you sculpt it yourself you wont need these but its usually always good to have a guide of what you want to do.

The next step is the sculpting. You can use various materials to do this: clay, sculptey, wax etc. whatever you are comfortable with. If you don’t know how, you will have to find a sculptor that you can work with.

Then you need to decide on color callouts and figure out the Pantone number for each of these colors.

Once you have devised a prototype you are happy with you then need to get it to a factory for costing and talk about numbers.

John Wong [Action-HQ.com] > How does one locate a factory?

Casey Lau [HyperChild] > The factory you will use will most likely be in China but your best bet is to talk to a factory’s agent in Hong Kong. That way communication is no problem and Hong Kong has been the center of toys for so long that they will know more about putting your product together than you will.

There are a few places to start sourcing factories and all are online and in English. Point your browsers to these websites to start surfing for the best factories:

www.tdcenterprise.com
www.alibaba.com
and look to come out to Hong Kong in January for the Toy Fair:
www.hktoyfair.com
Also a good place to look for exhibitors and getting in touch via email.

[HyperChild, Action-HQ.com and Action-Figure.com does not endorse any of the companies/information found on these sites. Deal with them at your own prerogative.]

John Wong [Action-HQ.com] > How would you know which factory to go with as there are so many?

Casey Lau [HyperChild] > In choosing a factory the most important thing is quality. Any factory can make a product but the quality of the product is a different thing altogether. So don’t go for the cheapest price but the best quality you can for the best price you can afford.

John Wong [Action-HQ.com] > What about costing and quantities?

Casey Lau [HyperChild] > Your negotiations will take time but have the factory send you some samples so you can see their work. Most factories should be able to point you to their work that can easily be found in the U.S., U.K. and throughout Europe. Don’t expect to find the same factory that Hasbro uses for your limited edition toy. You will need to find a good, stable, medium sized company that can handle the work for you.

Once you find the factory you will need to send them your prototype for costing. This is where you need to part with your original so make sure you make at least 2 of them. Within 2 weeks of receiving your prototype you will be able to get a cost for your figures. Depending on how many you want to make will determine the cost per piece. As most rotocast figures are done under 1000 pieces and looking at the retail price of HK vinyl today you can see that the costs are quite high.

The production process takes about 6-9 weeks, wax mould, master moulds, paint masters and production moulds all come next and there is a lot of back and forth between you and the factory to get it the way you want it. So again finding a good quality factory is # 1 as this will help with any aggravations created in the road of production.

From there you get your packaging design done to fit your toy and have that artwork sent to Hong Kong so they can print and package your toys. You tell the factory how many you want to pack in each case and they will then arrange to ship back to you.

Not as easy as it sounds but extremely gratifying when you open that sealed case of figures YOU created.

John Wong [Action-HQ.com] > Okay, here is the most important question, how much does it take to get started if all you can do is design the product? Can you give us a cost for sculpting as I think not many of us are competent to do that and how much is it to make 1,000 rotocast vinyl figures?

Casey Lau [HyperChild] > Well, like anything, costs break down by quality and negotiations. Sculpting can go from anything from $1,000 to $5,000 per figure in my experience -if you want someone famous to do it, it can go up to $10,000.

And then the price per piece depending on quality and size, articulation, number of parts - wow there are so many factors that come into pricing a figure that it could range from $1-$20 per piece for 1000 pieces. One thing I have learned is that to meet price points you have to be willing to let things go from your original ideas as some things may be too costly to do.

John Wong [Action-HQ.com] > Thanks, that was very informative. Let's talk about the other major component which is the market. In layman terms again, I think our readers would like to know how many pieces should someone starting out make and how do they sell it?

Casey Lau [HyperChild] > Well, there are online shops and brick and motor shops and the toys distributors to go too. This is a big question and you should figure out who your target audience is before you begin. In Hong Kong we have a very tight knit toy community of shops and shows where toys are sold and bought, as has the rest of Asia - in the U.S. or U.K. I would gather you would find some specialty shops that would be clued in to this scene.

John Wong [Action-HQ.com] > Thanks again, Casey. I think the readers now have a good and basic understanding on how to start. Any last words?

Casey Lau [HyperChild] > Just a plug. You can check out my line of figures at www.hyperchild.ws for a look at that will be available in June 2003 and are available for pre-order now at www.action-hq.com.

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